MWALIMU ANDREW: Trouble as Alex is posted to our school

Not many of you know a lot about my colleague Erick, who arrived in this school at the same time as Nzomo and Lena, she of bad hair fame. This is because Erick started looking for a transfer even before he landed here.

“I am just a passing cloud,” he told me when he reported. In short, he was asking not to be assigned any serious tasks as he was not going to be around for long. And so Erick spent the better part of his last three years at the County TSC offices looking for a transfer. He even travelled to Nairobi twice, coming back empty-handed.

Unknown to him, Bensouda was blocking his every move. You see, when Erick was brought here, sources closer to the source indicated that he vowed to never work under Bensouda, having worked with her in a different school before. Bensouda on the other hand made it her mission to block any transfer request by Erick.

“I think Erick has learnt his lesson,” I told Bensouda earlier this term. “Please help him get transferred.” I showed her that he was not adding value to the school as he was rarely in school anyway — as he was always away.

“Yes, I can help, but the boy must come and apologise to me,” she said. I talked to Erick about it. At first he refused, but remembering how much he had spent looking for the transfer, he faced Bensouda and apologised.

Bensouda just made two calls, and an exchange for Erick and another teacher was approved. The new teacher was to report on April 1, not even in second term.

I heard the new teacher was young, which is something I was really looking forward to as I wanted a young teacher who would help Mwisho wa Lami school advance in sports. When we got Kuya, we had assumed that he would be an asset to the school’s sports department given his athletic build. It turned out that the only sports he was good at was eating (a lot) and kuinua chuma — two sports that our students don’t compete on.

I did not go to school on Monday, as I was attending to a personal matter. When I came back, I went straight home.

“By the way, do you have a new teacher who has joined?” Fiolina asked me, excitedly. I could not understand why she was asking; and was even more dumbfounded what was making her excited, but as a personal policy, I did not discuss official school matters with her.

I arrived at school early Tuesday morning. Being the last week of the term, and exams shaving been completed, there wasn’t much happening. A few minutes to tea break, someone knocked on my door.

“My name is Alex, I am the new teacher who just reported,” the visitor said as he sat down, after greetings.

“Welcome to Mwisho wa Lami, Alex,” I said, looking at him from head to toe, trying to size him up. He looked familiar but I could not remember where I had seen him before. I told him to spend the week observing how things worked around here, as real work will begin in May.

It is only the next day that things got clear. It was 10.30am and I was in the office signing report forms when I saw someone I didn’t expect come to school. Fiolina, the laugh of my life. She went straight to the staffroom where she hugged Alex. They were very excited to see each other and talked for a few minutes.

“Let me see you off,” I heard Alex say, after which they left. Fiolina did not even come to my office to greet me. It all came back. This Alex was a former college-mate of Fiolina. He was a year ahead of her at Mosoriot TTC. If you remember, any time I visited Fiolina, he was always hovering around her like he owned her.

My mind went blank, I stopped what I was doing and could not think straight. When I arrived home that evening, Fiolina was still excited. “Imagine Alex has already done two years under TSC,” she said, and added that Alex was willing to help her get a TSC job.

I could not sleep that night as I kept asking God why he had sent Alex to Mwisho wa Lami. Fiolina could read my worries, and, moving closer to me, she said: “Dre, I know you are worried about Alex but I want you to know that he is just a friend, and you will always remain my beloved husband.” For obvious reasons, we slept late that night.

The next day, at noon, I realised that I had forgotten my wallet at home so I went back home to pick it. Fiolina was not at home, which was quite unusual. After I had picked my wallet and was leaving, I heard the sound of a motorcycle. It was Alex, and he was carrying Fiolina on the motorcycle. She had her arms around him tightly. Alex disappeared as soon as she disembarked, having seen me.

Fiolina was excited to see me. “Alex took me to see someone at TSC offices who will help me get a TSC job before the end of the year,” she said, showing me some forms she had filled. I was not even listening.

As I walked back to school, my mind wandered. I was not sure of what to do about many things, but I was sure of one thing: That Alex will not stay in this school for long. I will do whatever I can to keep him far away from this school, and therefore far away from Fiolina, the laugh of my life!